Catalysis is the basis for many industrial/commercial processes in the world today. The most important aspect of a catalyst is that it can increase the productivity, efficiency and profitability of the overall process by enhancing the speed, activity and/or selectivity of a given reaction. Many industrial/commercial processes involve reactions that are simply too slow and/or efficient to be economical without a catalyst present. For example, the process of converting natural gas or methane to liquid hydrocarbons (an extremely desirable process) necessarily involves several catalytic reactions.
The conversion of methane to hydrocarbons is typically carried out in two steps. In the first step, methane is catalytically reformed with water to produce carbon monoxide and hydrogen (i.e., “synthesis gas” or “syngas”). In a second step, the syngas intermediate is catalytically converted to higher hydrocarbon products by processes such as the Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis. For example, fuels with boiling points in the middle distillate range, such as kerosene and diesel fuel, and hydrocarbon waxes may be produced from the synthesis gas. reforming. Steam reforming currently is the major process used commercially for the conversion of methane to synthesis gas, the reaction proceeding according to Equation 1.CH4+H2OCO+3H2  (1)
The catalytic partial oxidation (“CPOX”) of hydrocarbons, e.g., methane or natural gas, to syngas has also been described in the literature. In catalytic partial oxidation, natural gas is mixed with air, oxygen-enriched air, or oxygen, and introduced to a catalyst at elevated temperature and pressure. The partial or direct oxidation of methane yields a syngas mixture with a more preferable H2:CO ratio of 2:1, as shown in Equation 2:CH4+½O2CO+2H2  (2)
The H2:CO ratio for this reaction is more useful for the downstream conversion of syngas to chemicals such as methanol or other fuels than is the H2:CO ratio from steam reforming. However, both reactions continue to be the focus of research in the world today.
For successful operation at commercial scale, the catalytic partial oxidation process must be able to achieve a high conversion of the methane feedstock at high gas hourly space velocities, and a high selectivity for carbon monoxide and hydrogen. In addition, the catalyst compositions should be stable under the severe reaction conditions of the syngas reaction.
Hence, there is still a great need to identify new partial oxidation catalysts, particularly partial oxidation catalysts that are able to maintain high methane conversion values as well as high carbon monoxide and hydrogen selectivity values while still resisting deactivation phenomena during the extreme syngas operating conditions.